The Crowd of Ruffians

The Monster Hunting Squad's misfortune struck on the very first day of their expedition.

That morning, after the Monster Hunting Squad had assembled and formed up in Prefecture City, Liu Cheng led the massive party of more than fifty people out of the city in grand procession. With Divine Movement Technique bolstering them, they headed west at full speed.

By noon, the Monster Hunting Squad had crossed hundreds of miles of rivers and mountains and reached the banks of the Eshui River, at the westernmost edge of Wu Prefecture.

Across the Eshui River lay Grey Needle Forest, where Mountain Spirits had been hiding and dwelling in recent days. There, Liu Cheng ordered the party to take a brief rest. Everyone reinforced themselves with spells, swallowed pills, and activated talismans... They were ready to storm the enemy's lair and decapitate its leadership as quickly as possible.

For months, these Mountain Spirits had roamed across the prefectures of Qiongzhou, killing countless people... The reason they had remained at large for so long was that they had an exceptionally troublesome leader, one seemingly capable of divination, who had repeatedly led its kin out of danger.

As long as they could kill this demon, the remaining Mountain Spirits would be nothing but a rabble. They would not even need to hunt them down one by one; the clan would naturally turn on itself and fall apart.

For this surprise strike at the leader, Liu Cheng had spared no effort.

Before leaving the city, only a handful of people knew the Monster Hunting Squad's first destination. After they left, Liu Cheng had the Protector Elder conceal their tracks while he used Divine Movement Technique to cover the entire party, driving them forward at full speed. By the time they finally reached the banks of the Eshui River, many members of the Monster Hunting Squad did not even know where they were.

Their assault on Grey Needle Forest was an all-out charge, swift as thunder. Even the elders, who were supposed to stay behind and provide support without entering the fray, stood ready to intervene at any moment, determined to leave nothing to chance.

Then that thunderous blow landed on empty air.

Grey Needle Forest teemed with exotic beasts, countless lesser demons that had gained intelligence, and even great demons lurking in deep pools beneath the dense canopy. But the Mountain Spirits they had come to destroy were nowhere to be found.

There was not a single Mountain Spirit—not even the mutated, enlightened leader, or some solitary wild one.

At the Mountain Spirits' dwelling that Liu Cheng had marked as their primary target, they found only a cave strewn with human bones. Outside hung several human corpses, half-eaten... as if in deliberate provocation.

Clearly, the Mountain Spirit leader had foreseen the imminent danger and led its entire clan away in time, narrowly evading Liu Cheng's thunderous strike.

The attack's failure was entirely beyond everyone's expectations. Even many Golden Core elders were at a loss for a moment.

Fortunately, Liu Cheng stepped in at once. With a few self-deprecating jokes and an impromptu reward, he steadied the troops.

After that, he did not hesitate. He gave a single order.

Pursue them.

Although the Mountain Spirits had moved in time, they could not have gone far, nor could they have completely erased the traces of an entire clan on the move. So even though their seemingly certain strike had missed... all they had to do now was follow the Mountain Spirits' tracks, and the outcome would remain unchanged.

To be safe, Liu Cheng also ordered the Monster Hunting Squad to advance as a single unit. Even if it slowed their pursuit, they absolutely must not split up rashly.

It was a cautious decision, and no one objected. So they pursued the Mountain Spirits, pressing deeper into the forest... until at some point, they seemed to cross an invisible boundary.

The Golden Core elders accompanying the party as protectors had suddenly, utterly vanished!

Everyone was still advancing together as Liu Cheng had ordered. Only a moment earlier, they could still glimpse the elders lurking beside the scions of the Aristocratic Clans, their figures barely visible... But in the next instant, those faint silhouettes had become mottled shadows cast by trees!

The sudden change nearly shattered the Monster Hunting Squad's morale on the spot. Several scions of the Aristocratic Clans were especially panic-stricken, desperate to turn and run.

It took Liu Cheng some time to calm everyone down. Afterward, he no longer insisted on pursuing the Mountain Spirits. Instead, he led the party back the way they had come, hoping to first get out of Grey Needle Forest and return to the banks of the Eshui River to regroup.

But once they started back, the journey seemed endless.

The surprise attack from the Eshui River to Grey Needle Forest had taken barely more than ten minutes. Even with the pursuit, the whole trip had lasted just over an hour. Yet the return journey took more than half a day. Twilight fell, and still they could not escape the grey, thorny trees.

They were not walking in circles, nor had they been trapped in a ghostly maze. They were truly retracing their steps in a straight line, yet the road ahead seemed to stretch on without end.

The missing Golden Core elders never appeared, either.

So Liu Cheng acted decisively, ordering everyone to stop and set up camp in Grey Needle Forest for the time being, so they could plan for the long haul.

He led by example, taking out many precious family heirlooms—magical treasures and talismans—and, through his own efforts alone, constructed a secure position in the forest. With him setting the example, several scions of the Aristocratic Clans followed suit, piling up magical treasures until they had built the [Qimen Hundred Treasures Formation]. In theory, even a Nascent Soul powerhouse would need to put in considerable effort to break through it.

After resting through the night, the party set out again at dawn.

In principle, the Monster Hunting Squad still recognized Liu Cheng as their leader, and he continued to choose their direction. Liu Cheng also kept nothing from them, candidly explaining the reasons behind his decisions to every member of the team.

He told them about the Qimen arts of divination and deduction he had studied in depth, the Zhou Tian Xuanji Compass linked to his life force, and the many rare talismans he used to aid his calculations...

By then, everyone could see that the bizarre situation had well and truly slipped beyond the control of the Liu Family's Eldest Young Master. Yet he was also genuinely doing everything in his power to find them a way out.

Others might have doubts or objections... but no one could offer a better solution.

So they continued to follow Liu Cheng's instructions, moving together through Grey Needle Forest in search of a way out.

The search went on for two days.

For those two days, they barely slept, following the direction Liu Cheng indicated as they trudged on until mountains crumbled and seas ran dry.

They had lost count of how many hills they had crossed and streams they had waded through, and had no idea how many unlucky native lesser demons they had run into... At one point, they even encountered an ancient tree spirit that had cultivated for several centuries. It took a great deal of effort to keep both sides from coming to blows.

Yet the way out they had been hoping for remained nowhere in sight.

That night, conflict inevitably erupted. Kang Pingxiang, the young master of Wu Prefecture's second-ranked Aristocratic Clan, was the first to make a move, demanding that Liu Cheng step down and yield his position to someone more capable. Liu Cheng did his best to defend himself and lay out the pros and cons, but after one failed decision after another, he had lost the support of most of the group.

On the third day, Kang Pingxiang took command of the party. He, too, did everything he could to find a way out, but in the end only led everyone to waste another day, during which they encountered several more dangers.

On the fourth day, Liu Cheng took command again. Having learned from the past few days, he substantially revised his method of deduction and glimpsed a faint hope of breaking through.

But in the end, it was all for nothing. The group wasted another two days and still could not escape Grey Needle Forest's secret realm.

By then, morale had completely fractured. Even the Rogue Cultivators, who cared little about hunting demons and only wanted to collect their daily wages, had grown restless and uneasy. All kinds of chaotic thoughts tangled together, and the situation was on the verge of exploding.

In the end, Kang Pingxiang made another move, and this time he turned his accusations squarely on the Desolate People among the Monster Hunting Squad's Rogue Cultivators.

"He said that only an inside traitor could have caused them to end up in such dire straits."

"The traitor must have used an Outer Dao heresy to corrupt the spiritual energy the Monster Hunting Squad relied on. That was why the team had become lost in Grey Needle Forest, and why the two young masters' superior deduction techniques had both failed."

"And such an Outer Dao heresy could only come from Desolate People with impure bloodlines and impure Dao hearts."

It was hard to say how much of Kang Pingxiang's accusation came from reason and how much was pure emotional outburst... But once he spoke those accusations and doubts aloud, there was no turning back.

In Qiongzhou, accusing a Desolate Person of being an "inside traitor" was an extremely serious matter, almost no different from slashing at them with a blade.

Under normal circumstances, the Rogue Cultivators might have swallowed their anger at Kang Pingxiang's accusations for the sake of the generous pay.

But by then, the confusion of so many consecutive days had already ground away their reason.

The infighting erupted on the spot. Several hot-tempered Rogue Cultivators immediately attacked... and, as expected, Kang Pingxiang beat them until their bones snapped and their bodies were mangled.

A few timid Rogue Cultivators tried to flee in the chaos, but the Hu Family's young master took their escape as proof of guilt and joined forces with Luo Xiao to break their legs.

Fortunately, at the last moment, Liu Cheng stepped in by force and stopped the fighting, preventing the infighting from becoming even more bloody... But even he could no longer bring the group back together.

That night, the team officially split apart. The scions of the Aristocratic Clans barely managed to stay together as one group, while all the Rogue Cultivators were cast out.

In a strange and unpredictable forest like Grey Needle Forest, expelling a group of Rogue Cultivators who were already relatively weak was a decision whose implications spoke for themselves.

Many of the abandoned Rogue Cultivators were instantly overcome by despair, while others were filled with rage.

But as far as Zhu Ying was concerned, this split was exactly what she had wanted.

From the very beginning, she had never wanted anything to do with those scions of the Aristocratic Clans... If not for the formation's gathering point for the earth vein's spiritual energy being in the hands of the leader, Liu Cheng—meaning she needed his permission to absorb it freely—Zhu Ying might have checked in at Prefecture City and left the team to travel alone right away.

The wilderness of Qiongzhou was certainly dangerous, and the Mountain Spirits were no gentle creatures. The risks of hunting alone went without saying. Even so, it was better than having to watch the scions of the Aristocratic Clans for their reactions...

What was more, while she had been lost alongside the Monster Hunting Squad, Zhu Ying had discovered something.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in Grey Needle Forest was extraordinarily dense. It was every bit as rich as that of Prefecture City, which monopolized the spiritual splendor of the entire prefecture... At that point, she had not a single reason left to compromise.

After separating from the scions of the Aristocratic Clans, Zhu Ying did not seek out any fellow Rogue Cultivators to partner with. Instead, she resolutely ventured alone into the dense forest, relying on instinct to find her way.

Not a way out, but a way to hunt.

From the moment she had entered Grey Needle Forest, Zhu Ying had vaguely sensed that the Mountain Spirits were not where Liu Cheng's deductions had placed them. Later, she had seen the Monster Hunting Squad fall into an invisible haze, while both Liu Cheng and Kang Pingxiang seemed blind to it.

As time passed and they remained lost, Zhu Ying became more certain of her judgment.

This Grey Needle Forest, home to spirits and monsters, was not the hunting ground of those scions of the Aristocratic Clans who prided themselves on the purity of their bloodlines. It was hers.

The hunting ground of Zhu Ying, a Desolate Person with the blood of the Demon Race in her veins.

Now, the hunter had finally cast off every restraint.

The hunt was about to begin.